Just published by the American Bar Association, "Internet Legal Research on a Budget: Free and Low-Cost Resources for Lawyers, Second Edition" by Judy Davis and Carole Levitt directs lawyers to useful and reliable databases and explains how to use them effectively. This edition has updated information about resources discussed in the first edition, new resources and expanded chapters on Casemaker and Fastcase.

With cost-conscious clients scrutinizing legal bills, lawyers cannot afford to depend on expensive legal research databases, especially when reliable free resources are available. This updated edition of "Internet Legal Research on a Budget" will help you quickly find the best free or low-cost resources online and use them for your research needs. The authors share the top websites, apps, blogs, and other Internet resources that will save you time, money, and frustration during the legal research process.

This book will help you locate and use:

• Legal portals and directories (government, academic, and commercial);
• Case law databases (government and commercial);
• Federal Statutory research;
• Federal, legislative, and congressional materials;
• Starting points for state, local, territorial, and tribal law;
• Foreign, international, and comparative law resources;
• And more!

Davis, JD, MLIS, is a senior law librarian and adjunct assistant professor of law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She has practiced law in California and currently teaches legal research to USC law students, works in the law library’s Reference department, and gives lectures and training sessions on legal research and related topics.

Levitt, JD, MLS, is the founder and President of Internet for Lawyers (www.netforlawyers.com) and Vice-President of CLEwebinars.com. She practiced law in California and was a law librarian in Chicago and Los Angeles. She is a nationally recognized CLE seminar speaker and bestselling Law Practice Division author. She is an expert on Internet investigative and legal research.

The post Internet Legal Research on a Budget Gets New Edition appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

CLEwebinars.com is hosting a new webinar based on the the popular and newly updated book "Internet Legal Research on a Budget" on July 8, at 1:00 pm ET. After you sign up for this webinar, you'll receive a discount code for 25% off the price of the book. This code will be active through August 31, 2020.

The webinar speakers, Vice-President of CLEwebinars.com Carole Levitt and Judy Davis, Senior law librarian and adjunct assistant professor of law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, have based this webinar on the new edition of their just published ABA Law Practice Division book, "Internet Legal Research on a Budget: Free and Low-Cost Resources for Lawyers."

The post CLE Webinar Based on popular Internet Legal Research Book Coming Soon appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

Recently, in response to query on Twitter, we created a Google-powered search of Pennsylvania statutes. This got us thinking about other states that offered access to their statutes online, but did not offer the full flexibility and/or familiar search options offered by Google's Web search. 

So, we started poking around a bit, looking for other state statutory materials onto which we might superimpose a Google-powered search. Our second Google-powered statute search covers Texas's statues and Constitution.

The Texas legislature offers an excellent search option for its statutes and Constitution at http://linkon.in/dqLvV5. There, you can browse or search the entire Code, or search individual Titles or the Constitution. Your keywords are even highlighted in the search results. While the Texas Legislature search does a nice job with Boolean and phrase searching, our test searches seemed to indicate that one weakness was in the exclusionary AND NOT/BUT NOT search - particularly when trying to exclude a phrase.

The Google-powered search we created for Texas statutes and Constitution allows for the exclusionary search using the minus sign ( - ).

Based on the dozen or so test searches we ran setting the search up, it seems to catch all of the statutes' content - but all of the usual caveats/disclaimers apply.

Let us know if you find any Titles in particular it does not return.

Google-Powered Search of Texas Statues and Constitution

The post Google-powered Search of the Texas Statutes (and Constitution) appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.

In response to a tweet yesterday afternoon mentioning the awkwardness of the existing search offered by the state of Pennsylvania for the online version of its statutes, we created a Google-powered custom search of the state's statute pages/files. It allows you to search the Pennsylvania statutes with all of the familiar Google Boolean connectors, syntax, etc. This custom-search is accessing the the pages and files as provided by the Pennsylvania state Legislature.

Thanks for all the positive feedback we've received since originally posting the search on Twitter and Facebook. While the search seems to cover all 79 Titles of the Pennsylvania statutes, we're not 100% sure the results are all encompassing. Based on the dozen or so test searches we ran setting the search up, it seems to catch all of the statutes' content - but all of the usual caveats/disclaimers apply.

Let us know if you find any Titles in particular it does not return.

Google-Powered Search of Pennsylvania Statues and Constitution

The post Google Powered Search of the Pennsylvania Statutes (and Constitution) appeared first on Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) in California, MCLE Los Angeles, CLE Orange County, Irvine & San Francisco.